To ask what its like being a surgeon/scrub nurse/anaesthetist?

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

Beginning Greys again to feel something

Is it as lifechanging as it seems, seeing inside someone, operating?

Are the theatre politics as crazy as they seem?

Do you get it on inside of elevators?!

Fun fact - if I had my time again, i'd be a heart surgeon. Unfortunately my head is too full of Gifs and Reality TV for that now 😅

Whats it like?

I think worst surgeon is a bit place specific as depts tend to recruit in a mould.

My place is generally full of pretty down to earth surgeons but one of the old school ones told me I was "intimidating" to his junior colleagues so maybe I force them to behave well!

I a mid career consultant anaesthetist and I think I'm just pretty clear in my expectations around communication/ case booking/ list management.

If you schedule your list fully but then decide to add an extra case for which there is no time but come up with the creative solution of going onto the theatre IT system and knocking 30 mins off each of the existing cases to create enough space to add the additional case then yes, I will be pissed off, vocal about it and ask you first thing in the morning which cases you want to prioritise as I'm not prepared to stay beyond the scheduled list finish time when the list is clearly overbooked.

In my role I'm sometimes what's known as a 'circulating practioner' and work in emergency c sections. I'm non sterile which means I can do things like put a step next to the table for surgeons to stand on if they need some extra height, write on the whiteboard and assist the scrub nurse with instrument/swab counts etc.

Operating theatres are fascinating to me and it still amazes me that I sometimes get to work in them!

Not any of the above but my son did have a cardiac arrest in hospital 2 years ago. I have his notes from when it happened as an investigation was carried out to see if it was preventable (it was) and they actually put out the first crash call before his cardiac arrest and then a second crash call when it happened.

His cardiac arrest happened on a children's assessment ward which doesn't typically deal with them and though I wasn't thrilled with his care up to that point, the response to his cardiac arrest was fantastic. His room was flooded with medical staff thanks to the first crash call and then even more joined with the second one.

He was transferred to a hospital with a children's intensive care and during the early days where he had to be sedated and paralysed, I had a lot of interaction with the main anaesthetist who cared for him a lot. She was amazing, absolutely amazing.

One of his scrub nurses who was in on several of the surgeries he ended up needing recognised me on an unrelated Facebook group months later and asked me about my son. I'll never forget that either, she was so lovely and kind.

I loved Grey's but can't watch it any more since my son was in hospital.

Are you kidding?
Anaesthetists are the doctors who keep people alive in intensive care units. They're very highly qualified indeed.

It isn't just a case of giving an injection to keep patients asleep long enough to be operated on.

FFS.

i do skin closure! It depends on what the skin is. Eyelid skin is very fragile compared to abdominal skin for example so you have to vary pressure. I used to get terrible hand cramp when I first started doing it.

OMG

Who do you think is the expert on intubation?
Of course anaesthetists attend crash calls.

Jeez.......

I’m an ODP!

The best job that nobody has ever heard of. 🤣

Girl are you alright tonight? 😩😩

I already said I was joking!!

I am obviously not in the medical field, just an admirer 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️😄

Yes girl, I'm all right.
Just a bit puzzled by the way you're asking questions.

BTW there are far fewer crash calls in reality than TV dramas suggest.

Also - most of them don't result in a ROSC. You certainly don't see patients sitting up drinking a cup of tea after a successful crash call which seems to happen with monotonous regularity on Holby City etc

Oh i can imagine! You have such a cool job though

Do you ever get to do a running whip stitch? 🤭

How many would you see a day? 👀

I imagine the focus is on preventing them getting to that stage

Oh god greys is not good for parents let alone parents who've been through what you have 💐

Is your ds okay now?

I will say, the kindness from the people in the NHS is 10 to none. Theyre so busy but little details like remembering their patients families mean a lot

In a well run hospital you should see zero cardiac arrest calls to the ward in a day. (Theory being that all deteriorating patients should be picked up in advance and managed).

The number in ED will depend a bit on the local population

Same they are so so fascinating!

Are the surgeons always polite to you? Have you dealt with any rude ones?

I couldn't be an anaesthetist. Sticking huge spinal block/epidural needles in between the right vertebrae whilst avoiding the spinal cord. Nope, you can keep that! I never even wanted to receive one (thankfully avoided it).

Couldn't be a surgeon either, for similar reasons. I'm not physically strong enough either. It takes a surprising amount of strength to do what they do sometimes.

Everyone in the theatre is polite but.... - I've had a few run ins with scrub nurses!! I know they have a stressful job but a few seem to have zero patience.

You sound so boss like 😄

Good for you, you have to establish boundaries, especially with men, in any field tbh otherwise they will take liberties

Is everyone posh? I can imagine theres a bit more class diversity now

I was gonna ask, i think that it must be physically quite taxing

And doing cpr is exhausting too right?

CPR is tiring.

Anaesthesia requires quite a lot of manual dexterity. Lots of sporty anaesthetists and cycling accidents common which is really bad news for rotas (my dept has had someone off with a broken wrist fairly constantly for 3years. Our clinical lead joked she was going to give us all stabilisers).

There is more diversity in medicine than there used to be but by consultant level most are earning well so I think it’s less obvious. (Or maybe I just can’t see it, my own background is pretty average - mortgaged house, old cars, no private school, worked while a student)

What an interesting thread! Many thanks to all of you life savers

He is, thanks. Septic shock in his case, he rapidly deteriorated and it unfortunately wasn't recognised by the surgical registrar until it was too late and he was already in multi organ failure. It's a reason why an investigation happened which took about a year.

The second hospital went above and beyond for my son. He was in intensive care for 7 weeks and once he had been extubated and was more stable, they noticed that when he went for a scan, he perked up next to the window when waiting for the lift because he could see outside and had the sun shining on him. I mentioned that he's really active and outdoorsy and is probably missing the outdoors and later on that day they had a doctor, his nurse, a play therapist and a few others wheel him outside in his hospital bed still attached to 2 IV pumps so he could be outside for 0.5 seconds. It took way longer to organise it than he was ever outside but I'll never forget all of the effort simply to make my son smile.

When we visit the hospital now, he calls the corridor with the entrance they took him out of that time his 'favourite corridor'. I'll never forget their kindness, especially like you said, when you know they are so very busy.

That’s lovely

You are joking! Anaesthetists are some of the most skilled doctors there are. They actually keep you alive while the surgeon is doing his/her bit.

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